New Delhi: Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy RK Singh will dedicate to the nation a 660 MW unit of NTPC’s Barh Super Thermal Power Project in Barh, Bihar, on August 18, said the Ministry of Power on Thursday. The 660 MW unit being inaugurated is unit II of Stage-I of the project. “The commissioning of this unit would be another milestone in the government’s endeavour to provide reliable and affordable power to the nation,” said an official statement.
NTPC’s Barh Super Thermal Power Project (STPP) is a 3.3-GW supercritical coal-fired power station in Barh, Bihar. It will comprise of a total of five coal-fired power generating units of 660 MW capacity each. Stage-I includes units I, II and III, while Stage II comprises of units IV and V. Units IV and V of Stage-II were commissioned in 2014 and 2016, respectively, and Unit I of Stage-I was synchronised to the grid in 2020. With the inauguration of unit II by Singh, all units of the STPP will be operational except for one — unit III.
Even though the foundation stone of the project was laid by late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on June 5, 1999, the project has seen inordinate delays in its execution over the years. The last unit, which now remains to be commissioned, is expected to go online within this year itself. Bihar gets around 90 percent of its power from Stage-II and nearly 61 percent from Stage-I of NTPC’s Barh Super Thermal Power Project.
The Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy will also lay the foundation stone for the extension of Power Grid’s 400/132 kV Lakhisarai Sub-station, later in the day on August 18. This sub-station has been built by Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID), a Maharatna Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the Ministry of Power. As part of the project, 220 kV GIS will be constructed in existing sub-station premises along with the installation of two transformers of 500 MVA capacity.
The extension of the substation at Lakhisarai will lead to improved power availability in Lakhisarai, Sheikhpura, Munger and Jamui districts and will also ease the supply of power to meet future energy demand. The installation of state-of-the-art GIS technology of 220 kV voltage level in Lakhisarai sub-station will further strengthen the connectivity of the region to the national grid. The provision of uninterrupted power supply will also lead to industrial and commercial development of the region, said the government.
